Watkins, Dawn, Professor

Professor Dawn Watkins

School of Law

Professor of Law

Project Lead: Project FORTITUDE

d.watkins@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6827

EF01 , Bartolomé House

Full contact details

Professor Dawn Watkins
School of Law
EF01
Bartolomé House
Winter Street
��«Ӱҵ
S3 7ND

Profile: Dawn joined the School of Law here in ��«Ӱҵ on 1 January 2022. She was previously a Professor of Law at the University of Leicester, where she had worked since 2005. Dawn is a qualified Solicitor but left legal practice soon after qualifying to pursue a PhD in Law.

Whilst at Leicester she was awarded a Distinguished Teaching Fellowship and short-listed for the National Law Teacher of the Year award. She was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2017.

In 2014-16 Dawn secured a £250,000 grant from the ESRC to explore children’s understanding of law in their everyday lives, using a digital game ‘Adventures with Lex’ created by the research team to gather research data.

This provided the proof of concept for her current , funded by a €2 million grant from the ERC, which aims to work with to improve children’s legal capability. The project will provide a range of game-based resources that will improve the lives of children by providing them with opportunities to improve their legal capabilities, as well as providing a framework for the development of these resources in other populations.

In addition to her academic work, Dawn sits as a Fee-Paid Judge of the First Tier Tribunal, assigned to the Health, Education and Social Care Chamber.

Research interests

Publications

Watkins D (2022) . Human Rights Education Review, 5(2), 98-116.
Watkins D & Moseley A (2022) . The Journal of Play in Adulthood, 4(1).
Watkins D (2022) . International Journal of Public Legal Education, 5(1), 4-36.
Law EL-C, Soleimani S, Watkins D & Barwick J (2021) . Behaviour & Information Technology, 40(11), 1072-1089.
Watkins D & Guihen L (2019) Using narrative and metaphor in formative feedback: Exploring students' responses. Journal of Legal Education, 68(1), 154-175.
Watkins D, Law EL-C, Barwick J & Kirk E (2018) . Legal Studies, 38(1), 59-78.
Barwick J, Watkins D, Kirk E & Law E (2018) . Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 24(3), 229-250.
Watkins D & Canto-Lopez M (2016) . The Law Teacher, 50(2), 195-208.
Watkins D (2012) . Law, Culture and the Humanities, 8(2), 244-265.
Watkins D (2011) . Liverpool Law Review, 32(2), 113-133.
Watkins D (2010) . The Law Teacher, 44(2), 169-180.
Watkins D (2007) . The Journal of Legal History, 28(2), 233-256.
Kemp V & Watkins D () . Youth Justice, 147322542110305-147322542110305.

Burton M & Watkins D (2020) Interdisciplinary approaches and collaboration in legal education in England and Wales, Key Directions in Legal Education: National and International Perspectives (pp. 35-47).
Cammiss S & Watkins D (2017) , Research Methods in Law (pp. 86-102).
Cammiss S & Watkins D (2013) , Research Methods in Law (pp. 71-84).

Magkafa D, Watkins D, Hemsley S, Mills C, George A & Wood C (2024) . Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Games Based Learning, Vol. 18(1) (pp 580-589). Aarhus University, Denmark, 3 October 2024 - 3 October 2024.
Magkafa D (2023) . Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference
Law EL-C, Watkins DE, Barwick JPL & Kirk ES (2016) . Proceedings of the The 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children

Research group

Teaching interests

Teaching activities

Module I teach:

Undergraduate

Professional activities and memberships: Editorial Board of the Law Teacher Journal